A University of Colorado student arrested in November after he reportedly told police he killed a raccoon with a bat so he "could take its hide," will face a felony charge after his case was transferred to Boulder district court this week.

Jace Robert Griffiths, 19, will face one charge of aggravated cruelty to animals -- a Class 6 felony -- after his case was transferred to Boulder district court without a preliminary hearing following his pre-trial conference Monday, according to Boulder DA spokeswoman Catherine Olguin.

Griffiths is now scheduled for an arraignment on Jan. 10. He declined to comment on his case when reached by phone Wednesday.

According to a police report, officers were called to a home in the 2800 block of Springdale Lane around 5:25 p.m. Nov. 6 on a report of a person killing raccoons.

When officers arrived, they found a baseball bat covered in blood on the front porch of the house, along with a raccoon skin covered in salt. The porch was covered in what appeared to be dried blood, according to the report.

In a written statement Griffiths, who said he lived at the house and killed the raccoon, said the raccoon came out of a Dumpster and was walking toward him and a friend.

"We could have walked away, but I decided to go up and kill it so that I could take its hide," Griffiths wrote in the statement. "I immediately regretted hitting it, but, rather than throwing it out, I took the hide and threw the remains in the bottom Dumpster."

Griffiths also told officers he found a dead raccoon in the same spot in August and took that raccoon's hide as well. Griffiths did not say in the statement what he planned to do with the raccoon hides.

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